Communications giant BT has hit back at claims it is not contributing enough to the Government programme to roll out superfast broadband in rural areas.

Responding to claims in a report by the National Audit Office (NAO) that the company is expected to provide just 23% of the overall £1.5bn cost, a company spokesman said the firm has committed more than £500m and more than a third of the contracts have yet to be signed.

‘We believe we will contribute around 38% of the total funds by the end of the programme, which is well above the 23% claimed in this report,' said the spokesman.

The NAO report also warns the national programme will be completed 22 months later than originally planned and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport has only secured ‘limited transparency' over the costs in BT's bids.

The chair of the public accounts committee, Margaret Hodge, added the firm has been ‘very cagey about its costs'.

‘BT has won all 26 contracts let so far from the Department's framework contract,' said Ms Hodge.

‘It is not much of a competition when you end up with only one supplier actively bidding in a framework, despite nine organisations being interested at the start.'
But the BT spokesman said there was ‘strong competition when prices were set at the start of the process'.

‘Deploying fibre broadband is an expensive long-term business and so it is no surprise that others dropped out as the going got tough.

‘BT on the other hand has stayed the course and invested significant sums in rural Britain, even though the payback period in such areas is longer than in the first two thirds of the UK, which has been funded by BT alone,' added the spokesman.